


Truths

by CannibalKats



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-15 05:35:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4594803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CannibalKats/pseuds/CannibalKats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leliana confronts Adaar about her past with Bull.  Adaar assures her is shouldn't be an issue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Truths

                “You weren’t a mage when we hired you.”

                Roxy nearly jumps off the wall when the spymaster’s voice starts behind her. She can feel the smug satisfaction on the woman’s face. She’d been waiting for this to come up since the talking heads of the Inquisition had declared her innocence.

                “To be fair I was always a mage, you just didn’t look hard enough.”

                Leliana snorts. “I know who your Grandparents are, why didn’t I know you were a mage?”

                “You’re a smart woman, an excellent bard, a fucking hero of the fifth blight and a brilliant spymaster. You tell me.”

                The red head is quiet for a while, and the two of them stand on the wall watching the workers of Haven hard at it before she speaks again. “I forget sometimes how harsh the Qunari can be, especially on their own.”

                “I guess that’s as good a segue as any.”

                Leliana frowns. “Your attitude towards the Iron Bull-”

                _The Lieutenant had been waiting for her in Haven when she returned from the Hinterlands with Mother Giselle. His bold invitation to see them in action had been thrilling. A taste of respect to come, something she’d not felt since she’d been too young to appreciate it._

_Everything about the Bull’s Charges was golden on paper, a near flawless record and morals to boot. Josephine was already sorting out housing when she and Cassandra gathered their party and made for the coast._

_Roxy’s heart had sank when the Chargers came into view. She stopped cold, words lost, her knees felt week. Cassandra bumped into her, apology cut short by the look on her companion’s face._

_“Do you know him?”_

_She tries to laugh but it comes out a horrible strangled sound. “You could say that. Fuck. Shit, shit, Andrastes fucking ass.”_

_The Seeker waves off Varric and Solas, instructs them to join the Chargers on the beach,_ we’ll catch up _, she tells them before she turns back to Roxy, leaning heavy on the wall of rock behind her._

_“HIssrad,” she hisses. “Liar, spy, h-he,” she takes a deep breath and hopes she isn’t crying. “He’s Ben Hassrath, he- My mother- It was his fucking fault.”_

_Cassandra has a basic understanding of the Herald’s childhood, they’d bonded over grief, raised glasses for the senseless death of loved ones. Roxy breathes slow and deep and watches the lines in the Seeker’s face as she considers the situation and chooses her words._

_Roxy knows what she’s going to say before she says it._

_“We_ need _them.”_

_“I know.” The Herald’s face is set._

_“Would you like me to handle it?”_

_“I’d like nothing more but I think he’s expecting the Herald of Andraste.”_

                “I know he’s an asset. I’m not sending him away. Even if he wasn’t offering up those reports the Chargers are a formidable company, blah, blah blah.”

                “I understand working with a Ben-Hassrath can be difficult for you, but it should not be any different than working with Templars.”

                Roxy laughs, it’s sharp and lacks mirth. “You don’t understand anything.” Her thumb traces the scars on her lips.

                “I know what they did to your mother.”

                It’s everything she can do not to throttle the woman in front of her. Roxy holds out her hands scarred from the tips of her fingers to half way up her arms. “You don’t,” she says quietly, hating that she has to talk about it again. “You know what my father wrote, that we were betrayed, that she created a distraction that allowed us to flee.”

                She can see the bard the spymaster used to be. The way her face lights up at the thought of a new story. Roxy thinks she might even be composing a song.

                “It was him. He turned us in; he walked beside me while they called me monster and threatened my parents with re-education.   He stood in the corner and watched them collar me and sew my mouth, while his comrades beat my father for loving my mother. ” Roxy takes a shaky breath and continues. “You think because he acts that way, and you’ve met one or two who weren’t monsters and still followed the Qun, that maybe they’re not so bad. They are.”

                “Twenty years is a long time.”

                Roxy snorts. “In ten years would you be so quick to trust your abusers?” The look on Leliana’s face suggests she didn’t expect the Herald to remember and Roxy is smart enough to look sheepish. “He’s honest, as long as he stays that way I won’t do anything stupid.”


End file.
